Sleepy Hollow-THE CURSE
by kitsune reyoki
Summary: The horseman comes back for ichabod.
1. Chapter 1

**Pain...**

**That's all that Ichabod felt after the Headless Horseman stabbed him with his sword and flung him aside from the battle which now had Brom and the Horseman fighting by the covered bridge. Ichabod could only stare, helplessly, at the two as their battle began to get fiercer than before. He wanted to get up and stop their fight but the pain from being thrown on the ground and the stab wound in his chest protested against him.**

**Stay and watch... a voice, in his head, spoke to Ichabod as he tried to get up once more. But, before Ichabod could question what he heard, the sicken sound of flesh and steel colliding brought his mind back to the fight as he saw Brom cut in half by both the sword and axe of the Horseman. Ichabod was now in shock to see someone he knew, again, being killed by the infamous ghost and could do nothing about it.**

**Pay no mind to a fool who doesn't listen... the voice spoke again in a soothing sound that was lulling the constable's mind in a hazy state. Ichabod looked up again to see the Horseman, violently swinging his weapons at the constable, turn back to his horse, Daredevil, to return back to his tree, with his new prized heads of the Killian Family. As Ichabod watched the Horseman leave, he started to faint but heard the voice speak once more to the terrified constable,**

**Besides, you wished him dead...**

**Days later, Ichabod, along with Katrina and Young Masbeth, were fleeing from the Horseman as they escaped from the burning windmill and set forth to the forest in a carriage. The constable had just found out that it was Lady Van Tassel, or Lady Archer, that was summoning the Horseman from his grave to carry out the deadly deeds of killing the towns people, all for the price of owning inheritance from the Van Tassels. But to claim the inheritance, Katrina would have to die in order for Lady Archer to get everything from the Van Tassels. Enter the Horseman. So now, knowing the real culprit behind the murders, Ichabod had to save Katrina from the Horseman and her stepmother all in one night.**

**As the carriage entered the forest, the Horseman, along with Daredevil, were right behind their trail. Ichabod noticed the Horseman's approach on them and decided to stop the ghost once and for all. Every time the Horseman came, someone he knew would die by his sword, but he be damned if the Horseman got away with killing one more person in this town. Even if it was him that the Horseman would come to kill, Ichabod would not let him kill Katrina. So getting up from his seat and handing the reins to Masbeth, Ichabod turned toward the Horseman and began to fight for not only his and the remaining towns people, but for Katrina as well.**

**Ichabod was doing well against the Horseman, for a constable. During his struggle against the Horseman, both he and the ghost fell off the carriage resulting the Horseman clinging to the back of the carriage and the constable on Daredevil. Seeing the Horseman trying to gain hold of the carriage, Ichabod forced Daredevil to go faster to get to the carriage first. The feel of riding the ghost horse made Ichabod's mind strangely calm. After getting off the horse and on the carriage, the calmness was then replaced with horror of the Horseman coming for Katrina's head.**

**'Strange, why did I feel calm when I was on Daredevil?' Ichabod asked himself, as he was looking for the Horseman on the other side of the carriage. Hearing a sword coming out of its sheath behind the constable told where the Horseman was now. Ichabod crawled away from the Horseman and stood up in time to get his briefcase and use it as a shield against the Horseman's sword. Disarming the Horseman from his sword gave the constable the upper hand, of the Horseman didn't have superhuman strength to throw Ichabod down on the carriage as he was strangling him. Ichabod tried to return the favor, if there was a neck he could choke on.**

**Why do you fight against me... the voice returned in Ichabod's head as he was fighting against the Horseman. It was now clear that it was the Horseman that spoke to the constable that night, when the Horseman wounded him and killed Brom in the process, in his head. Ichabod got away from the Horseman, as both Masbeth and Katrina jumped on the horses, and followed them by breaking the wood that held the carriage to the horses. The constable jumped off the carriage and grabbed on to the broken wood that had the horses and continued deeper in the woods.**

**Ichabod and his friends escaped from the Horseman and entered the clearing, where the Tree of the Dead now stood. Feeling safe, the moment was broken when Lady Archer arrived to where the three where.**

**"Katrina run!" Ichabod yelled at Katrina. She ran as Lady Archer pointed her pistol at the constable and fired. Feeling the impact of the bullet, the constable fell down. 'So this is how I die, not by the sword but by the gun,' Ichabod thought as he prepared himself for Death's cold grasp.**

**You will not die that easily... the Horseman spoke as if in an ironic twist that the Horseman, himself, was Death.**

**"Sir, you're alive!" Masbeth yelled with joy and shock. Ichabod was confused for a moment until he felt were the bullet hit. The book that Katrina gave him had actually saved his life. Seeing that Lady Archer was distracted with the Horseman coming for Katrina, Ichabod attacked her to get the Horseman's head. Both Archer and Ichabod struggled for the bag until Masbeth knocked Archer out. Grabbing the head Ichabod turned to the Horseman, who was about to decapitate Katrina.**

**"Horseman!" Ichabod shouted, as he showed the head to the Horseman.**

**Give me my head and the woman shall live... the Horseman spoke as his hand reached out for him. Ichabod threw the head at the Horseman and caught it. As the Horseman placed his head on his shoulder, the painful transformation for the Horseman began. But the Horseman was not the only one to feel the pain. Ichabod grabbed his crest as the stab wound started to burn in pain. 'Why is the wound in pain all of a sudden?' Ichabod thought as he clenched his teeth together, as the pain increased.**

**When the transformation was over the Horseman turned to the constable and Katrina. With his head on, Ichabod was now able to see who the Horseman looked like but at the same time was afraid that he put Katrina in front of him. Then, Daredevil came and the Horseman turned to his steed. Climbing up, he rode to where Archer lad and grabbed her. For a brief moment when Archer woke up, the Horseman bit her mouth and rode back towards the tree. As the horse jumped and was about to enter the tree, the Horseman turned toward Ichabod and in that brief second spoke to Ichabod in his mind.**

**This not the end but the beginning of something new...**

**The horse entered the tree with the Horseman and Archer, screaming as the tree swallowed them into hell. Ichabod and the others turned toward the entrance of the tree to see Archer's and out of it and curled. Ichabod then fainted as he heard the Horseman last words repeat again.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Ichabod was deep in sleep. Usually, he would be dreaming of his innocent mother when he was a boy. How he would play games with her in the meadow and how she taught him of some witchcraft. But with these pleasant memories came the horrible end to her life by his father's own hands. But this dream was different.**

**Ichabod was himself, walking through the Indian Trail towards the Tree of the Dead. As the tree came into view the Horseman stood by the base of the tree, grinning as he saw the constable coming his way. Ichabod looked shocked as he stood there, staring at the Horseman as he extended his arm toward the constable.**

**Come to me Ichabod... the Horseman spoke in a soothing voice to the constable. The way the voice sounded didn't seem right for the Horseman but still, it lulled him in a trance-like state that he couldn't escape. Slowly, Ichabod walked towards the Horseman as his hand came up to grab the ghost's. Before their fingers nearly touched, Ichabod jolted, violently, out of his sleep and into the waking world.**

**"What in the world?" the constable questioned as he took to his shrouding. Last time, he was in the woods just as the Horseman returned to the tree and back in hell with Lady Van Tassel. He then recall that the Horseman said something to him and then fainted after seeing Lady Van Tassel's hand move. It seemed that after he fainted, Katrina and Masbeth got him and themselves back in the town and in Katrina's manor. He was right; this was Ichabod's room during his stay in Sleepy Hollow.**

**With that in knowledge, Ichabod started for the door when his wound started to pain again. Instantly, Ichabod fell down and reached for his chest. It was started to hurt worse than before, like there was something burning inside his chest. As Ichabod was starting to get up the door opened and an elderly man came through.**

**"Mr. Crane, what are you doing up out of bed?" the man spoke. His voice was rough within the years that past by. He came towards the constable as he helped him back into the bed. "You should be resting, especially with a wound like that." Ichabod looked at his wound as he started to see that the edges were turning black.**

**"Who are you?" Ichabod asked as he sat on the bed.**

**"I'm Dr. Lancaster," the old man spoke.**

**"That's impossible! Dr. Lancaster was murdered by the Minister," Ichabod objected.**

**"That was my son, Lancaster Jr. I'm Lancaster Sr." Dr. Lancaster corrected. Ichabod looked astonished by the old man who claimed to be the father of the late Lancaster.**

**"Then that would mean..." Ichabod started.**

**"That I'm 69 years old and still well enough to kick your ass if you call me immortal," Dr. Lancaster joked but his eyes told a different story. Ichabod silenced himself, believing that he was right about what he said. "Now, from what my son observed, your wound should had killed you but it was already cauterized before he started to treat it."**

**"By the Horseman," Ichabod confirmed to the old doctor.**

**"But now it seems that the outside where the wound is, is starting to turn black," the doctor examined as he touched the wound. Ichabod hissed in pain as the finger slightly touched the burnt skin "I was hoping you would inform me as to how your wound started to turn black and also still hurts as if the flames of hell were touching it?"**

**"How do you know the wound burns?" Ichabod question astonished that he didn't have to tell the doctor that the wound felt like it was burning him.**

**"Anything that sword touches would burn someone, even if it was a light touch," Dr. Lancaster informed as he stared down at the wound. "The young Van Tassel has yet to inform me as to how you defeated the Horseman."**

**"Well I gave his head back to him," Ichabod announced proudly. Dr. Lancaster turned to his face with a look that would kill if it could.**

**"You did what?" the doctor asked with venom in his voice. "You gave that damned demon its head back!"**

**"Is there a problem?" Ichabod asked looking nervously at the gentleman.**

**"You're damn right there's a problem!" Dr. Lancaster yelled as he threw up his hands in the air. "Why in the name of the seven layers of hell did you give it back to him?"**

**"I thought that by giving his head back to him, he would leave the town in peace," Ichabod stated.**

**"You damn right he'd leave, but not after leaving the town in pieces and everyone dead with it!" Dr. Lancaster stomped away from the now confused constable and towards the window. "You have any idea what you'd done? There was a damn reason why he was decapitated back then and now you, of all the idiots in the world, had to go and release him from his prison!"**

**"W-what? The council never told me that," Ichabod whispered.**

**"That ingrate of a son didn't tell you?" Lancaster asked looking like he was ready to kill someone, "That bastard! After all the times I told him about the Horseman he never told you! Well isn't this just great?"**

**"Maybe the Horseman will rest in peace," Ichabod suggested to the doctor trying to calm him down.**

**"Rest in peace my ass!" the doctor swore as he made his way to the door, "The only damn time that bastard would rest is if there's no one to kill. And now, thanks to you, he'll be able to kill who and when now that he's free! I also say that since you're the idiot that helped him, you'll be the first he'll kill. Congratulation!" With that he slammed the door, leaving Ichabod shocked by the outburst the doctor made.**

**What seemed like an eternity of silence, Ichabod looked up to see the door open again with Katrina and Masbeth, following behind her.**

**"Ichabod are you alright?" Katrina asked looking very scared and worried.**

**"We just saw Madman Lancaster leave the manor when Lady Katrina and I came back from town," Masbeth informed; he, too, looking scared.**

**"Madman Lancaster?" Ichabod asked, thinking about the odd name as well.**

**"Well, it's a rude term and nearly everyone in town uses when they see him," Katrina informed as she started to calm down a bit and glared at Masbeth, "Just because he's old and likes to tell his verison of the Headless Horseman. But everyone knows it isn't true what he says about the Horseman."**

**"I'm not sure," Ichabod whispered low to himself that only he could hear. 'Because I think he's right.'**


	3. Chapter 3

**The trees started to become more bare in the small town of Sleepy Hollow as Ichabod rushed over to the original building of Lancaster's office, looking for Mad- Lancaster Sr. Arriving to the office just as Lancaster Sr. approached it's door began his interrogation.**

**"Sir! What is it that you know about the Headless Horseman?" Ichabod spoke up to the old man that turned and glared at him.**

**"That, because of you, released him from his prison and now will be able to roam the lands and cause destruction and chaos for the living!" Lancaster growled at him while opening the door for entrance then slamming it at Ichabod's face, but Ichabod was one not to be denied of important information and entered after Lancaster.**

**"Sir! You will tell me at once what it is that makes you believe that the Hessian will rise again!" Ichabod yelled at the old Lancaster with unknown furry in his eyes. The old man looked straight in the eyes of that furry and laughed at the constable.**

**"Feeling a bit of rage there?" Lancaster asked with a mischievous grin on his face. Ichabod's rage was then replaced with that of confusion as he looked at the old man. Lancaster then offered a chair to the young constable as he sat. "I should expect such rage coming from you...after all...its quiet evident since the Hessian is now free and planning his conquest on the Eastern Coast."**

**"What conquest do you speak of?" Ichabod asked sitting down and waiting for the answers that he needed to finish the Headless Horseman once and for all.**

**"Heh," the old man chuckled to himself, "For me to tell you of his plans you must first know the real reason for stopping him and burring his remains to that tree."**

**"I already know that," Ichabod informed the old man, "They stopped him from his bloodlust of killing the soldiers and insatiable furr-"**

**"No!" Lancaster cut him off, "That is only minor details to his true power. The man was the embodiment of a vengeful spirit who's only purpose in life is fighting and never ending bloodshed of those who have fallen to his sword."**

**"Isn't that almost the same thing I was trying to say?" Ichabod asked a bit annoyed that he was cut off. Lancaster then laughed,**

**"But it's not entirely the same thing. When someone's been out to war and returns back from that battle they still feel like they're back fighting in whatever part of the country that they're in; however, with the Horseman, he isn't back in the battlefield, he is the battlefield!" the old man explained to the young constable, "Someone like the Hessian will never stop fighting and will never want the peace that makes the fighting stop. Fighting to him is like smoking; once you start you don't ever want to stop because it gives you a feel of living." Ichabod just stared at the old man, now worried that Katerina and the others were right about the old kook.**

**"But wouldn't that be something...not believable?" Ichabod questioned not wanting to get on the wrong side of the old man.**

**"Believe what you want but the Hessian shall and won't ever rest in peace as you would put it," Lancaster grunted as he spoke once more, "If you have lived as long as I had and seen the hell that I've seen, then you would believe me when I tell you that the Hessian was no ordinary soldier." Ichabod then stared at Lancaster with a discovery that he now knew about the old man that stood before him.**

**"You were there...when they beheaded the Hessian." Ichabod stated to the Lancaster.**

**"No," Lancaster said with a grin, "I was the one that beheaded the Hessian." Ichabod stood now with a questioning look at the old man as he, too, stood and advanced over to Ichabod. "Do you hear voices in your head that are not of your own and did you feel pain when you saw the Hessian's head placed back on his head?" Ichabod's eyes grew wide from hearing this and tried to back away from him.**

**"How do you know about that when I never said anything of the sort to you?" Ichabod questioned, eyes showing a hint of inferno rage building up without knowing. Lancaster came closer to Ichabod, in a way of defining his raging eyes.**

**"Because of that," he pointed to the constables eyes, "Those are the first signs of being converted to the Hessian's side. If I were you I'd get out of here while you still have a chance to remain the way you are now." Ichabod, who's eyes were now dying down of the rage, stood puzzling on what Lancaster just said.**

**"What? Turn to the Hessian's-?"**

**"Yes, yes, you, Mr. Crane, will be joining the Hessian's side if you don't get out of here first." Lancaster explained, but before he could sit down, Ichabod's unknown furry got the best of him and pinned the old man to the wall, more rage in his eyes than he could ever have.**

**"WHAT IN HELL ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! WHAT YOU'RE SAYING! EXPLAIN YOUR-!" Ichabod froze, releasing his grip on Lancaster, he started backing away from him with rage replaced with questionable shock to what he just did.**

**"That, is what I'm trying to explain" Lancaster brushed off invisible dust and went back to his seat, "The Hessian lusts for his battles and wars so much that right now, as we speak, the Horseman is rounding his unholy army from hell, itself, to surface above this world to bring forth a battle that has never been seen in the light of day; however, there is one more addition he needs to start his unholy war and right now, he's persuading this soul with unnecessary violence, slowly tainting the soul to his wishes and once this soul has been tainted enough...he will claim him as his own."**

**"And...that soul would be?" Ichabod asked with fear coming from his voice, not wishing to believe what his gut was telling him about who this individual was that the Hessian was after.**

**"Why Mr. Crane? You above all people should know who it is, but then again if the constable here were all smarter then there would be less crime happening in this land." Lancaster explain with an insult before his face turned serious to the young constable, "Its you...that the Hessian wants."**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ichabod's eyes grew wide from the news and tried to back away, forgetting that he was sitting and had fallen over his seat to the floor within seconds. 'It's not possible!' Ichabod mentally screamed in his mind, 'Why would he want me to join him?' Standing up from the floor, he put his mental question into voice.**

**"But...why me?" Ichabod asked, still not wanting to believe that the Hessian was after him.**

**"That I would not know," Lancaster Sr. replied, "You would have to ask the Hessian that."**

**"There must be someway that we can stop the Hessian from rising up and destroying this town, no, this country!" Ichabod shouted at the old man pacing around his office with worry.**

**"And people call me Madman," Lancaster chuckled to himself while watching the poor constable pace back and forth, "The only thing that was holding him back from escaping hell was the Tree of the Dead, but now that the Hessian has his head back, from the physical world no less, he can walk among the living as well as the dead."**

**"But there must be something anything at all that could stop him!" Ichabod pleaded to the old man.**

**"Well...there is one way that would stop him and his army from rising up," the old man said to himself while thinking, "But that would be impossible to do."**

**"Please! Any way that can stop him I will to protect this town and country," Ichabod pleaded once more to Lancaster with determination on his face to get the job done. Lancaster then sighed and turned away from the young constable.**

**"You must chop the Tree of the Dead down with the Hessian's sword," the old man told him in a whispered tone, proving his old age was real. Ichabod looked at him with confusion and puzzlement.**

**"But isn't his sword in this physical plain as his tomb stone?" he questioned the old man, his voice also quiet with confusion.**

**"No the sword I speak of his the same one he bares with him and the one that stabbed you with its unholy flames," Lancaster Sr. said and turned to Ichabod, "You must retrieve his inferno weapon to this plain and chop the tree down with its fiery blade, scorching it to a stump,"**

**Ichabod's face then paled at the thought of going inside the tree's bloody passageway to retrieve the Hessian's sword and cutting the gate way to hell. Looking at Lancaster to see if there was any other way to avoid that and seeing that there wasn't came to his full decision.**

**"I'll do it...I'll go down to hell and bring his sword back to chop the Tree of the Dead down," Ichabod sighed but showed determination on his mission. Lancaster, looking surprised that Ichabod had not tailed it out of town by now, turned his face into that of a mischievous grin.**

**"Then we haven't the time to diddle daddle Mr. Crane!" Lancaster jumped up, almost as if he was still a school boy and made his way to the door, "We need you to get ready to go down that tree tonight!"**

**"Tonight?!" Ichabod exclaimed with fright and rushed after the old kook.**

**That night in the Van Tassel Manor, Ichabod was in the kitchen with Katrina, Masbeth, a Lancaster Sr. as they prepared Ichabod for the journey of a life time.**

**"Katrina...are you sure this will work?" Ichabod asked, while watching Katrina conjure something within the small caldron.**

**"Yes Ichabod," Katrina answered him what seemed like the eleventh time, "Once you drink this potion, you will have exactly thirty minutes to find the Horseman's sword and return back here without his or the Tree's knowing that you entered in."**

**"Constable Crane, are you sure this is wise for you to go down there alone?" Young Masbeth asked, worried for the constable's sake, "I could come with you so that you won't be alone down there."**

**"Thank you, Masbeth, but this is my duty to protect this town and if something happens to you down there I won't ever forgive myself," Ichabod answered the young Masbeth.**

**"Take this," Lancaster informed Ichabod while handing him a pendant with, what looks like human hair, tied around it. "This will help you locate where the Hessian is down there. The hair once belonged to him before we buried him so many years ago."**

**"I still don't know if this is wise, Ichabod, for all we know Ma-Mr. Lancaster could be wrong about all this and the Horseman could be resting in peace." Katrina tried to reassure the young constable while finishing the potion.**

**"And I'm telling you now, Miss Van Tassel, that the Hessian will NEVER rest in peace," Lancaster reinformed her and the rest again. When Ichabod and Lancaster arrived back to the manor Lancaster filled in to what was going to happen and what was needed to be done while there was still time. Katrina had her beliefs that the Hessian was gone for good, while young Masbeth was neutral on the subject only watching the battle on who was right and wrong be played by Katrina and Lancaster Sr. Sighing with a bit of frustration, Katrina added the last ingredient to the pot and stirred it well.**

**"The potion is finished," she informed the men, while pouring all its content into a glass for Ichabod and handing it to him. "Drink this before you enter the forest so that the trees and everything around you in there will be unaware of your presence." Nodding to her, Ichabod took the glass full of potion from her and made his way to the door.**

**"Well...I better get going everyone," Ichabod informed them before opening the door to leave.**

**"Be careful sir!" Masbeth called out to him.**

**"And what ever you do Mr. Crane, do not listen to anything in you head!" Lancaster yelled to him as a warning of some sort while Katrina remain silent as the Ichabod exited the manor. As he ventured forward towards the woods, a slam from behind made him turn around to see a rushing Katrina come towards him and hug him on the spot.**

**"Please...please come back alive Ichabod," Katrina pleaded to him while hiding her face in his shirt.**

**"Don't worry Katrina," Ichabod assured her while petting her head, "I will come back to you." Ichabod pulled himself away from her and looked into her eyes to make her see that he was serious to his word.**

**"I believe in you Ichabod," she smiled at him and kissed him on the cheek before looking at his eyes again and her face frowned a bit, "Ichabod...why do your eyes turn a shade of red?" Ichabod blinked with confusion and looked at Katrina again.**

**"What do you mean?" he asked with a kind voice to hide the fear that might be heard from him. Katrina stared at him a bit more before shaking her head.**

**"It must had been the light," she said with a smile before retreating back to the manor to wait for his return. Ichabod smiled at her innocence but then frowned slightly to what she meant earlier about his eyes but he, too, shrugged the thought away. Drinking the potion down and entering the woods, he found his way to the Tree of the Dead. As he stepped forward the tree's roots moved to make an opening for Ichabod to journey through. Shocked by the tree's response, he looked down at the pendant with the Hessian's hair and assumed that it was the hair. He walked towards the portal as the tree's roots twirled around as in silently saying, "Enter my pallor, said the spider to the fly". He then gulped before descended down into the portal with the tree shifting again to close the portal.**


	5. Chapter 5

**As Ichabod entered the tree, all of the sudden he was squeezed through the portal, as if the tree just swallowed him whole and spat him out onto a warm hard floor. Great full that he wasn't being digested inside the tree, he rose up, brushing himself off of the dirt and leaves that was on him from his journey and gazed at the sight he came upon. The sky was red with blood and there was no sun but a crescent moon that emitted the sense of an eery dread. The land he stood on came to view of a dark forest and as he was about to walk away from the forest, the pendent that Lancaster Sr. had given him started to glow and pointed towards the woods. Witnessing this, Ichabod gulped and stared into the forest.**

**"Looks like there's no turning away from it," he sighed to himself and walked into the dark forest, hoping that he would not cross the Hessian too soon on his journey. As he entered the eery forest and followed the path that the pendent showed, he needed to be quick on his feet remembering that he would only be undetected for a short time to just find the Hessian, steal his sword, and to return to his world to chop the tree down. Not even knowing how much time there was left, he quickened his pace even more, weaving through trees towards his destination. When the pendent started to glow brighter, the pain in Ichabod's scar started to hurt even more. Confused by his pain, he continued onward as he reached for the exit of the god ridden forest, but as he was about to cross the end of the woods, footsteps sounded from behind him and he was forced to hide behind one of the trees.**

**Looking from the tree, Ichabod paled as two armored demons walked by him, not noticing his presense, and headed towards the end of the woods. As they left the forest, he came from behind the tree and started to follow after them slowly and quietly. 'Old Lancaster was right the entire time, the Hessian isn't resting in peace but the very opposite! I must stop his plan before it's too late!' he thought as he exited out of the woods. There, in front of him, stood a giant castle surrounded by mote of lava as it reflected off the castle, giving it a demonic view. Ichabod gulped as the pendent pointed towards the castle were also the two armored demons were heading as well.**

**"Looks like the Hessian is inside that castle and I haven't a minute to spare!" Ichabod spoke to himself as he ran across the bridge, still undetected by Katrina's spell, and followed where the pendent pointed towards. The pain of his scar grew even more as he entered the castle and the pendent then pointed to one of the towers of the castle. Determination in his eyes, Ichabod went through the door to the great tower and ran up the stairs. Passing windows of the view of the main courtyard, demons by the millions were all standing in rows of line, as if waiting for a command to make their move. As Ichabod finally reached to the end of the stairs, his pain grew terribly and the pendent shined like a bright like.**

**Sighing to himself, he put the pendent away in his pocket and slowly turned the door, 'This is it,' he thought to himself as he opened the door and entered the tower. There stood a dark bed with a lump in the middle. Dark blue clothes and armor were hung on a chair and there, along with the clothes, was the hellish sword of the Hessian Horseman; however, the sword stood by the bed with the lump and Ichabod could only guess that the lump was none other than the Hessian, himself. Silently cursing himself, he approached the bed slowly and reached out to grab the sword. Just as he grabbed the sword from the bed, a hand emerged from the bed and grabbed him by the wrist. Wincing in pain from not only his wrist but his scar, the lump figure rose from the bed and there sat the Hessian, grinning at Ichabod, as he paled.**

**"I was expecting you, Constable Crane," the harsh whispered from the Hessian spoke as he continued to grin at the unfortunate constable.**


End file.
